Eye Boot Camp, Hyderabad, July 2014

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Does the Frequency of Eye Blinks an Indicator of any problem in Eye?

@ Dr. Anthony Vipin Das and @ Prof. John Werner. If I am not wrong eye blinks are due to changes in Delta Brainwaves or vice versa. I blinking is not in our control, it happens naturally. When I was kid I watched three movies continuously and on next day my eyes started blinking with high rate. I didn’t recall what I was diagnosed but after two days it was normal. Can we make some device by which can monitor eye blink rate and diagnose the status of eye health using some wearable device. I have tested eye blinks frequency using EEG. My question is what should be the normal rate of eye blinks, what effects are there for lower and higher rate on eye health. Kiran

The normal blink rate is 12-15 times per minute. Blinking spreads oil from the eyelid glands and moves our tears across the cornea. It helps lubricate our eyes, and remove irritants that get into our eyes. Blink speed is affected by fatigue, eye injury, medication, and disease. Blink rate is also reduced to as low as 3-4 times per minute when the eyes are focused on an object for an extended period of time such as when reading or while working at the computer. There is even a new “disease” called Computer Vision Syndrome and dry eye is a part of it. are

Greater activation of dopaminergic pathways is associated with a higher rate of spontaneous eye blinking. Conditions with reduced dopamine availability such Parkinson’s disease show a reduced blink rate.

Eye blinking can help diagnose medical conditions. For example, excessive blinking may be a tic and indicate Tourette’s syndrome. Reduced blink rate is often seen in stroke and brain injury patients due to brainstem issues, or slowed nervous system processing speed.

Excessive blinking can be a tic but it may also be the way our body copes with dry eye, binocular eye teaming issues (blinking promotes getting the eyes to come back together), biochemical imbalance, and the side effect of some medications.
There are also conditions of eyelid spasm, incomplete eyelid closure, difficulty opening the eyelids, etc but I won’t go into those now.

Dear Dr. Cathy, really interesting to know so much about eyes, I think I will have great time with you all and I am going to ask many questions as your answer has ignited me much to go deep into the eyes. Thanks a lot. See you soon at Hyderabad
Kiran